Syrian president issues new amnesty, reduces sentences – World

Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree on Sunday granting amnesty and reducing convictions for all crimes committed before September 14, state news agency SANA said.

Similar amnesties have been issued several times last year since the Syria crisis began in March 2011.

According to Sunday's forgiveness, the terms for life would replace the death sentences, and a 20-year sentence on forced labor would replace the life sentences on forced labor, and a 20-year sentence would replace the long-life sentences.

Prisoners with incurable diseases, including cancer, would be released, he said.

The decree stipulated the granting of a general amnesty for military deserters who are delivered within 3 months for those inside the country and 6 months for those outside the country.

Also on Sunday, Assad received the Russian Special Envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev and his Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergey Vershinin, a day before a trilateral summit in Turkey that will include the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran in which Syria It will be the main focus of the conversations.

Monday's summit in the Turkish capital of Ankara will discuss the situation in the northwestern province of Idlib that has been attacked by government forces since April 30. A truce has been maintained despite some violations since the end of August.

Russia and Iran strongly support Assad, while Turkey supports the Syrian opposition.

SANA said that Lavrentiev informed Assad about the summit's agenda.

Examine The | The United States has given up on overthrowing Assad: a moment that will go down in history

Separately in northern Syria, a car bomb killed at least eight people and wounded seven others in a city held by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, Syrian opposition activists said.

The Syrian Human Rights Observatory based in Great Britain and Thiqa The news agency, an activist collective, said the explosion happened Sunday night in the city of Rai.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing near the entrance of the city, the second deadly explosion in the wider area controlled by the rebels since June.

A member of the rebel security forces, Osama Abu al-Kheir, said AFP that a refrigerated truck exploded outside a health center